World's Most-Visited Museums

A majority of travelers choose to get their culture fix at these museums. How many have you visited?

A majority of travelers choose to get their culture fix at these museums. How many have you visited?

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Lyndsey Matthews

November 14, 2011

There’s a woman so captivating that millions travel just to set eyes on her. Even if da Vinci’s Mona Lisa isn’t your type, you can’t argue with the numbers: last year 8.5 million people streamed through the Louvre, which houses her, making it the world’s most-visited museum.

Artistic masterpieces and scientific artifacts clearly interest travelers at least as much as attractions like the Eiffel Tower (visited by 6.7 million). We dug deeper to find out which 20 museums worldwide are considered must-sees worth the price of admission.

The Louvre Museum, ranked No. 1, benefits from broad name recognition and an enviable art collection, but it also has the good fortune of being located in France, which—along with the U.S.—drew the most international tourists in 2010, according to the World Tourism Organization. More than half of the 20 most-visited museums are located in Paris, D.C., or New York City.

Yet there are also some surprises. The only Asian museum to make our most-visited list—the National Museum of Korea—welcomed roughly 3 million people last year, about twice as many as did Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum. Since South Korea isn’t a top destination for international travelers, this museum’s ranking reveals the power of domestic tourism, especially in a developed country with a sizable affluent population.

Wherever their home base, budget-conscious travelers flock to museums as an inexpensive or even free way to spend an afternoon. Museums, too, have struggled with the recession, and some increasingly rely on their permanent collections as fodder for special exhibitions.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, for instance, reduced its exhibition budget by 39 percent yet still attracted 326,000 more visitors than in 2009 by leveraging its extensive in-house collection, which spawned a massively popular Picasso show. However, not all museums can replicate that success; Chicago’s Art Institute and Field Museum both saw attendance rates drop by hundreds of thousands from 2009 to 2010.

Read on for the 20 most-visited museums around the globe.

The Methodology: To tally up the world’s most-visited museums, we gathered the most recent data supplied by the museums themselves or from government agencies, industry reports, and reputable media outlets. Whenever available we used 2010 data. Institutes that don’t sell tickets gave us estimates as best they could. While we left out palaces and sacred spaces that house art, we did include the Vatican Museums because admission is separate from St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican Museums attract a broad audience, not just religious pilgrims, and have had a significant cultural influence. “The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art” remains the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s third most popular show in its 141-year history, drawing more than 896,000 visitors during its three-month run in 1983.

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No. 1 Muséedu Louvre, Paris

Annual Visitors: 8,500,000

The world’s most-visited museum doesn’t show signs of budging; its numbers have held strong at 8.5 million for several years now. While the Louvre is indeed an art-lover’s paradise of roughly 35,000 masterpieces, including the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa, it is also the subject of controversy—not everyone appreciates I. M. Pei’s 69-foot-high glass pyramid, added to the museum’s entrance in 1989. louvre.fr

No. 2 Smithsonian NationalAir and Space Museum, Washington,D.C.

Annual Visitors: 8,300,000

Opened in 1976 on the National Mall, the world’s largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft has aviation fans streaming in to see 50,000 original artifacts, from the original Wright brothers’ 1903 flyer to a sample of lunar rock that visitors can touch (all for free). Kids also love this museum for its flight simulators, 3-D space shows at the Albert Einstein Planetarium, and cool “How Things Fly” exhibit. nasm.si.edu

Source: Smithsonian Institution

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No. 3 Smithsonian National Museum ofNatural History, Washington,D.C.

Annual Visitors: 6,800,000

A large collection of dinosaur fossils, the infamous Hope Diamond, and some 126 million items in the collection have made this the most-visited natural history museum in the world. And the museum continues to make improvements. The Sant Ocean Hall debuted in 2008 with the world’s largest marine collection, and the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins opened in 2010 to celebrate the museum’s 100th anniversary on the National Mall. mnh.si.edu

Source: Smithsonian Institution

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No. 4 British Museum, London

Annual Visitors: 5,842,138

A perennial favorite with free admission, the British Museum attracted 270,000 more visitors last year than in 2009. There are 2.5 miles of galleries and 7 million objects, so reserve plenty of time to navigate past the crush of visitors for blockbuster attractions like the Rosetta Stone and the controversial Elgin Marbles. britishmuseum.org

No. 5 MetropolitanMuseum of Art, New York City

Annual Visitors: 5,216,988

The Met drew 300,000 more visitors in 2010 than in 2009 thanks to a Picasso special exhibition and Doug and Mike Starn’s buzzed-about temporary Big Bambú installation on the roof. You can expect even higher visitation numbers in 2011 due to the Alexander McQueen show, which drew 661,509 visitors, some of whom waited in line for hours to get in. The McQueen show is now the eighth most popular in Met history. metmuseum.org

No. 6 Tate Modern, London

Annual Visitors: 5,061,172

Since its debut in 2000, the Tate Modern has quickly become the world’s most popular modern art museum, breaking into the club of museums that attracted 5 million-plus visitors this past year. Located in a repurposed power station across the Thames from St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tate showcases works by Dalí, Magritte, and Matisse as well as large sculptural installations in the dramatic turbine hall. tate.org.uk/modern

No. 7 American Museum of Natural History, New York City

Annual Visitors: 5,000,000

Founded in 1869, the museum has welcomed generations of visitors who come to wander through the Koch Dinosaur Wing, the Morgan Hall of Gems, and the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life—famous for its massive replica of a blue whale suspended from the ceiling. While it’d be easy to spend an entire day in the permanent exhibitions, there are also special exhibits to discover, along with the Hayden Planetarium and an IMAX theater. amnh.org

Source: American Museum of Natural History

8 of 20(c) National Gallery, London

No. 8 NationalGallery, London

Annual Visitors: 4,954,914

A wealth of Western European paintings from the 13th to 19th centuries, free entry, and a prime location on Trafalgar Square combine to make the National Gallery very popular. While most come to see the Constables and Van Goghs, the surprise hit of 2010 was Ed and Nancy Kienholz’s installation of Amsterdam’s red-light district, The Hoerengracht—the National Gallery’s first modern installation. It brought in 2,400 daily visitors during its run and was one of the most successful art shows in London last year. nationalgallery.org.uk

No. 9 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Annual Visitors: 4,775,114

Upon his death in 1937, financier Andrew W. Mellon promised to use his extensive art collection to create a gallery for the people of the United States. Since the museum opened in 1941, its collection has expanded from paintings by the Old Masters to such exhibits as 2010’s “Designing the Lincoln Memorial,” seen by more than 2.9 million visitors—making it the most popular art exhibit in 2010 and helping the National Gallery of Art secure a spot in the top 10. nga.gov

No. 10 VaticanMuseums, Rome

Annual Visitors: 4,676,179

The Vatican Museums began as a group of sculptures collected by Pope Julius II in the early 16th century. The popes continued to build this collection over the next five centuries to transform it into a who’s who of art history and culture. Look for works by Raphael, Caravaggio, and most famously Michelangelo, who frescoed the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. There are often long lines to get in, so avoid them and buy tickets online. mv.vatican.va

No. 11 Natural History Museum, London

Annual Visitors: 4,647,613

Located in South Kensington, just down the road from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum (which both made this list), Europe’s most popular natural history museum has a staggering 70 million items, including specimens collected by Charles Darwin. Originally part of the British Museum’s collections, the museum opened in Alfred Waterhouse’s gorgeous Romanesque building in 1881. nhm.ac.uk

The sixth Smithsonian building on the National Mall opened in 1964 and now has a collection of more than 3 million artifacts that create a lasting record of the past for Americans. Highlights—from the Star-Spangled Banner and Abraham Lincoln’s top hat to Dorothy’s ruby slippers and Kermit the Frog—charm millions of annual visitors. americanhistory.si.edu

Source: Smithsonian Institution

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13 of 20Timothy Hursley

No. 13 Museum ofModern Art, New York City

Annual Visitors: 3,131,238

Though a visit now comes with $25 sticker shock, this world-renowned museum still admits millions of visitors eager to see Dalí’s Persistence of Memory, Warhol’s Gold Marilyn, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, and blockbuster exhibits; MoMA organized four of the top eight contemporary art shows in 2010, including “Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present,” which brought in 7,120 visitors a day during its spring run. If the galleries get cramped, head outdoors to the Sculpture Garden. Admission is free on Friday evenings from 4 p.m. to closing at 8 p.m., but prepare for crowds.

No. 14 CentrePompidou, Paris

Annual Visitors: 3,130,000

The brainchild of President Georges Pompidou, Paris’s modern art museum opened in 1977 in an ultramodern building designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. The duo made the unconventional decision to place the escalators and ducts on the outside of the building to free up room for the 60,000-plus works in the museum’s collection. After closing for renovation for two years in the late ’90s, it reopened in 2000 and has gone on to become the second most-visited museum in France. centrepompidou.fr

No. 15 NationalMuseum of Korea, Seoul

Annual Visitors: 3,067,909

The number of permanent works on display within Asia’s most-visited museum may be comparatively small (13,000), but it includes Korean national treasures such as the bronze Pensive Bodhisattva, a 10-story pagoda from Gyeongcheonsa Temple, and a fifth-century gold crown from the Silla Kingdom. In 2005, the museum reopened in its new permanent home in Yongsan, the geographic center of Seoul. In its first three days, more than 100,000 visitors came to the new museum. After 44 days, 1 million had already visited. Since 2008, access to the permanent exhibits is free, a policy that has surely contributed to the museum’s growing popularity. museum.go.kr

No. 16 Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Annual Visitors: 2,985,510

This decommissioned station on the Left Bank of the Seine became a museum in 1986. While the remarkable collection of Impressionist art is the main draw, the ornate details of this Beaux-Arts-style building—including the arched glass barrel ceiling over the main hall—are a close second. Many French weren’t pleased with the museum’s decision to fund a multimillion-dollar renovation by sending hundreds of its masterworks on tour. But the traveling shows thrilled visitors to Tokyo’s National Art Center and San Francisco’s de Young Museum in 2010. musee-orsay.fr

No. 17 Cité desSciences et de l’Industrie, Paris

Annual Visitors: 2,867,000

Americans may not be familiar with this museum—preferring to seek out the Louvre or the d’Orsay—but Europe’s largest science museum is wildly popular among families for its interactive exhibits. Opened in 1986 in what was once a poor neighborhood in northeastern Paris, the museum is part of the Parc de la Villette, a massive cultural complex that also includes the Cité de la Musique and the Géode, a large hemispherical IMAX movie theater. cite-sciences.fr

No. 18 Science Museum, London

Annual Visitors: 2,751,902

Families flock to this museum, as do school kids taking part in field trips (380,000 visit as part of a school group each year). Founded in 1857 as part of the South Kensington Museum, the Science Museum has operated independently since 1909, with 12,000 scientific, technological, and medical objects on display and more than 300,000 in its collection. sciencemuseum.org.uk

No. 19 Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Annual Visitors: 2,732,000

What began as the collection of Spanish kings, who bought directly from Titian, Velázquez, and Goya, has evolved to become one of the finest museums in the world with major works of European art such as The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch and The Three Graces by Rubens. The Prado opened to the public in the early 19th century and recently completed a $210 million expansion project that introduced new galleries, an auditorium, restaurants, and a bookstore. museodelprado.es

No. 20 Victoriaand Albert Museum, London

Annual Visitors: 2,629,065

Queen Victoria renamed this massive museum of decorative arts and design in 1899 (it was originally known as the South Kensington Museum), in memory of Prince Albert’s support of the museum’s founding. Today, nearly 57,000 items are on display, everything from ceramics and photographs to oil paintings, furniture, and a pirate outfit designed by Vivienne Westwood. And don’t forget about special exhibits such as last summer’s “Grace Kelly: Style Icon,” whose 50 featured outfits included the satin gown she wore to the Academy Awards in 1955.